Four girls have been killed in a stampede at a school in the western Afghan city of Herat following an accidental gas explosion, police say. Eight other children were also injured as people started to panic and flee after a fire broke out, officials said. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops set up outposts Sunday in southern parts of Ramadi as part of an operation to establish Iraqi army bases in the country’s largest Sunni Arab city and wrest it away from months of insurgent control.U.S. commanders stressed that the operation was not a large-scale assault on the city but rather an “isolation” tactic to prevent insurgents from receiving supplies or reinforcements from outside. Arab television networks and some Western outlets have reported on an impending attack on the city.Two long columns of U.S. and Iraqi armored vehicles late Saturday encircled the southern side Ramadi, the capital of volatile Anbar province, and met little resistance. “The good news is that we didn’t get as much resistance as we’re prepared for,” said Lt. Col. V.J. Tedesco, commander of the 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division. “I really think the fight will be in the coming days.”...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13398011/

A series of explosions ripped through Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 23 people and dealing a shattering blow to the new Iraqi government's attempts to impose a security blanket on the capital. The seven separate blasts at locations across the city are likely similarly to frustrate the efforts of the White House to demonstrate a degree of progress in Iraq since the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi earlier this month, and the surprise visit to Baghdad last Monday by President George Bush.In the meantime, a new Pentagon investigation revealed details of abusive treatment of detainees in Iraq early in 2004 by members of US special forces. The report said the soldiers were continuing to use interrogation techniques that had been ruled unacceptable several months earlier by the Pentagon because they were too harsh, including feeding one inmate on bread and water only for 17 days....http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1090201.ece

Insurgents foiled heightened security in Baghdad and killed more than two dozen people Saturday after an al-Qaida threat to avenge the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, dealing a blow to the Iraqi government's pledge to bring peace to the capital. Eleven more Iraqis, including four in Baghdad, died in shooting attacks across Iraq. U.S. troops, meanwhile, combed through the "Triangle of Death," a predominantly Sunni Arab region south of the capital looking for two soldiers missing since an attack Friday on a traffic checkpoint that also killed one of their comrades. The spree of bombings and mortar attacks in Baghdad was an embarrassment for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who ordered more police and army checkpoints for the city last week to restore security for its 5 million residents. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2089364

The frustration used to start on the phone. Every time Donna Dunlop called her daughter's pediatrician, she started from scratch, describing the girl's complex history of seizures and other neurological problems to someone in a remote office who had never heard of her. Specialists arrived at appointments clutching Elena Spahr's medical history a stack of bulging folders well over a foot high yet failing to grasp the bigger picture. An oblivious X-ray technician once asked her mother, "Can you just have her stand over here?" "The kid's in a wheelchair and completely unable to do that," Dunlop said. "It seems small, and yet I can't tell you how hard it is when no one has been clued into the reality that child faces." Several years later, Elena,...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2089329

Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said for the first time Saturday he would not honor Mexico's commitment under NAFTA to eliminate tariffs on U.S. corn and beans if he is elected. Tariffs on all agricultural products must be removed in 2008 under the North American Free Trade Agreement. But Lopez Obrador said he opposed eliminating tariffs on U.S. white corn and beans, showing no allegiance to a deal he sees as harmful to Mexican farmers. "We are not going to accept this clause that they signed," Lopez Obrador told supporters in Chiapas, an extremely poor farming state. With two weeks to go before the July 2 election, the fiery ex-Mexico City mayor is running about even with his main opponent, Felipe Calderon of the conservative governing National Action Party, or PAN. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2089345